Bubba's Amen Corner Prayers Are Answered

On Sunday, the world saw Bubba Watson win The Masters for his first career PGA Tour major victory.  Starting the final round three shots off the lead, the hard hitting left hander seemed to be a popular pick among analysts to make the comeback and get the win.  Fittingly, the University of Georgia alum’s first major victory came in Augusta, Georgia, the same state as his alma mater.  Bubba Watson’s popularity has already risen exponentially over the past couple of days with many people talking about “The Shot” and the raw emotions he displayed just moments after his Masters clinching putt on the last playoff hole against South African Louis Oosthuizen.

As far as sports business is concerned, you could look at the near $1.5 million that Bubba brought in for spending four competition days on a golf course that many outsiders would give their first born to play.  More importantly, you could look at an interesting decision made by PING immediately following the tournament.  PING, who sponsors Bubba Watson, announced that they have no immediate plans to produce the pink driver that Bubba made so popular in the last week.  As part of a deal with PING, Bubba uses the pink driver as well as pink highlight points on his clothes and PING donates $300 to Bubba Watson’s charity every time he hits a 300 yard drive. 

I wonder why PING would not at least try to capitalize on this.  What is the harm in releasing even a limited number of the now well-known drivers to see what the demand would be?  My immediate reaction is that they would draw some kind of consumer attention in the market.  PING could even take the approach that some of the money made off of the drivers would go to Bubba’s charity.  People jump at chances to visibly support good causes and this is a great way to spread the word.  I think that PING is making a big mistake here.  What do you think?

Bubba Watson loves doing charity work so much that he did this music video with Hunter Mahan, Rickie Fowler, and Ben Crane!  For this, Farmers donates $1000 for every 100,000 views.

Want to learn more about Bubba Watson, Bubba & Friends Drive to a Million charity challenger, and the rest of his outstanding charity work? Check out http://www.bubbawatsongolf.com/.